The Monarch School, a national leader in special education programs for children with autism / Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD and other neurological differences, is cleaning up the Gulf Coast and celebrating the A+ earned recently by its new Chrysalis green building.

The environmentally cutting-edge, 100% green powered building is the first LEED® Gold certified and “Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR®” certified special education school in the United States.

HOUSTON, Texas--June 17, 2010--The Monarch School’s students, families and teachers are celebrating the A+ earned recently by the school’s new Chrysalis building for going green. Chrysalis is the first special education facility in the United States to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold certification.

Monarch’s Executive Board President David Matthiesen said, “We wanted to build green but we thought LEED and ENERGY STAR would cause exorbitant costs. Ultimately, we took a fact-based leap of faith, and learned firsthand that building green is economical, practical, meaningful and relevant to students, particularly ours with autism / Asperger’s, attention deficit and hyperactivity, and other neurological disorders.”

Video: http://tinyurl.com/how-to-green-schools

The school’s sustainability expert and advisor Mark Robinson, founder of Momentum Bay, a Houston-based green management consulting and marketing boutique (www.momentumbay.com), confirmed the business case that encouraged the board, design team and construction team, “Early studies like Greg Kats’ ‘Greening America’s Schools: Costs and Benefits’ (2006) and others (http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schooldesign/impactonlearning.html) show that students in other green schools achieved better test scores, attendance and health. These schools enjoyed 20 times more lifecycle benefits than the small zero-to-two percent upfront premium for green building back then. Given the nation’s cumulative 12-year experience on 10,000+ ENERGY STAR labeled buildings, and nearly 5,000 LEED certified projects, it was clear that sustainable best practices could yield even greater savings for Monarch.”

Ensuring a safe environment for students and reducing long-term operating costs through energy efficiency were central to Chrysalis’ green building strategies. Energy modeling and ENERGY STAR’s Target Finder tool confirmed both. Chrysalis is projected to prevent 33 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than a conventionally designed K-12 school, and use 33 percent less energy, saving more than $170,000 on utility bills over the next 25 years. These savings are worth more than a 13 percent discount on all design professionals’ fees. The local electrical utility CenterPoint Energy even rewarded the school’s exemplary energy efficiency efforts with a cash rebate, making The Monarch School the first private school to be recognized in the CenterPoint Energy SCORE (Schools Conserving Resources) Program.

David Hill, project engineer at Mission Constructors (www.missionconstructors.com), said, “It’s important to keep buildings clean from the day we begin construction until we turn them over to owners. So, we used low or no-emitting high quality paints, carpets, fabrics and wood. We kept air ducts covered during construction, and tested air quality prior to occupancy. Going forward, The Monarch School will maintain healthier indoor air via green cleaning practices and integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. After their first year in the new green school, teachers are already noticing improvements. Exposure to indoor air pollutants could have diminished students’ ability to focus.”

The new special education facility is also serving Monarch as a teaching tool about sustainability and the environment. Green Building Services’ (www.greenbuildingservices.com) Senior Consultant Amanda Tullos said, “Monarch’s gung ho, green students are the ones earning the school an A+ for going green. They’ve even interviewed Mayor Annise Parker about her plans for greening Houston.”

Science teacher Richard Klein added, “Monarch’s curriculum integrates sustainability and clean tech with science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) and other disciplines via several hands-on activities that teach leadership, entrepreneurship, neighborly respect and hospitality, as well as resource conservation for the great outdoors.”

As it prepares to complete it green campus with two additional greener buildings, The Monarch School hopes that its underdog success story will inspire other schools to obtain their best possible grades for student performance by certifying independently building design, construction, operations and fiscal performance.

One parent commented, “Students typically receive objective feedback – grades and recognition from their teachers - when they overachieve. So, why wouldn’t all of the United States’ 105,000+ public and private K-12 schools pursue the same, bringing home a ‘special’ education report card to parents every year?”

Chrysalis is the first building of three planned for The Monarch School’s new Houston campus. Founded in 1997 by Dr. Marty Webb, The Monarch School is now one of the nation’s leaders in special education and therapeutic education. Monarch serves the needs of hundreds of kids with neurological differences, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, PDD-NOS), Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder, Learning Disabilities, Tourette’s Syndrome, Mood Disorders (Bipolar Disorder, Depression), Anxiety Disorders, and other neurological differences. With a ratio of 2.5 students for each teacher/mental health professional, the school develops individualized plans to help each student make progress in the school’s four core goals: executive functions, relationship development, self-regulation/self-awareness and academic competence. Students range from preschool thru elementary, middle school, high school and adult living. The Monarch School is an ENERGY STAR Partner, EPA Green Power Partner and member of its 100% Purchasers group.

The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED green building certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Over 35,000 projects are currently participating in the LEED system, comprising over 6.9 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 114 countries.

Created in 2004, the EPA's "Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR" designation is one of two prominent methods to distinguish the building developers', owners' and design teams' commitment to energy-efficient design. (Certification under the US Green Building Council's LEED for New Construction or LEED for Core & Shell Rating Systems is increasingly pursued in conjunction with the EPA’s DEES designation.) Once a building’s Architects of Record has completed the schematic design phase and energy modeling, the architect can submit the building’s DEES application.

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to buy green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with purchased electricity use. The Partnership currently has hundreds of Partner organizations voluntarily purchasing billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500 companies, small and medium sized businesses, local, state, and federal governments, colleges, universities and K-12 schools ().

Momentum Bay is a comprehensive “green” management consulting and marketing firm headquartered in Houston since 2002. The firm equips executives and their teams to plan green strategies and execute specific projects, primarily related to green business, green building and/or green power from strategy to procurement to messaging.